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HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM   439

In his Initial Decision, the Hearing Examiner in the San Francisco and Oakland Helicopter Airlines case took notice of the following travel-time differentials.  The variation in helicopter times is accounted for by the difference between nonstop and one- or two-stop services.

TRAVEL TIMES BETWEEN SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AND VARIOUS HELIPORTS

[[ 3 columned table]]
|Location| Surface| Helicopter|
|---|---|---|

| Downtown San Francisco | 35" | 8"-29" |
| Berkeley | 55" | 12"-23" |
| Downtown Oakland | 50" | 10"-21" | 
| Oakland International | 1'00" | 8"-27" |
| Sunny Vale | 1'00" | 17" |
| Marin County | 1'05" | 14" |
| Contra Costa | 1'25" | 13" |

[[/3 columned table]]

Source: Appendix A, Initial Decision, CAB Docket 12029 et al.

An indication of the time savings available from helicopter services can be found in a comparison between helicopter flight times and ground transportation times published in the Official Airline Guide.  In Chicago, the scheduled helicopter flight time between the downtown area (Meigs Field) and O'Hare Airport is 11 minutes.  This compares with running times of 35 to 45 minutes published by the limousine-coach operator.  These times include no allowance for airport check-in.  American Airlines publishes a ground transportation time of 80 minutes and a CHA helicopter time of 30 minutes, both allowing for airport check-in.  United publishes 70 to 80 minutes for ground time and Northwest, 80 to 90 minutes; both including an allowance for check-in.  TWA posts limousine time of 45 to 55 minutes and Eastern lists driving time of 60 minutes. Regardless of the method used by the individual airline, it appears that the helicopter time, even with the single-engine S-58, has an advantage of 25 minutes at the minimum and at least 35 minutes at peak surface traffic hours.

In the New York area, NYA schedules a flight time of seven minutes between Downtown Manhattan (Wall Street Heliport) and N.Y. International (Idlewild). In contrast, nearly all of the trunklines post ground transportation times of 75 to 90 minutes from the East Side Terminal to Idlewild although it appears that some allowance is made in these times for airport check-in.  Allowing for check-in time, the helicopter' time savings would run from 55 to 70 minutes at a minimum, however.

Comparable published ground transportation times are not available for taxis although it is generally recognized that running times are some 10 to 15 minutes less than airport limousine times.  Travel by taxi has the additional time-saving advantage of requiring no check-in at downtown terminals or heliports. On the other hand, taxi fares are considerably higher than airport limousine fares.

The advantages of bringing air technology to bear on the increasing problems of getting people to and from and between airports are only obvious when one compares helicopter flight times with surface travel times under present stages of surface travel. The question arises: Can't technology be applied further to surface travel and won't these technological advances result in greatly improved speeds at costs much lower than those possible with helicopters? For example, isn't it possible to increase the speed of private automobiles and public buses on urban streets and highways through the use of automated ways? Couldn't the speed of monorails be used in airport transportation?

In this day and age, the answers must be "yes", theoretically.  Certainly the technological capabilities exist for improving the speed of surface travel.  It is our opinion, however, the characteristics and problems of urban transportation as a whole make it highly unlikely that any substantial improvement will occur in the speed of surface airport transportation within the next 10 to 15 years.

III-48

Transcription Notes:
1-30-2021: Reopened for editing; Fixed table formatting and add missing ' and " in the table and in the text; Marking for review